Doping and sports - 2016

2016

In 2015, the number of doping cases worldwide rose by 1.1%, WADA registered 3,809 out of a total of 303,369 controls.

Nearly 500 doping samples from the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin were retested in 2016 with improved techniques.

A study by the Department of Sports Medicine and Physiology at the German University of Bayreuth revealed that 1,236 doping cases were found in elite athletes between 2000 and 2013. Anabolic steroids (> 38%) were most commonly used, followed by blood doping (15.3%) and stimulants (14.2%). Most infringements came from Russia (10.4%), followed by the United States (6.8%), and Italy (4.9%). Athletics had the most offenders (29.4%), followed by weightlifting (21.8%) and cycling (13.0%). However, related to separate Olympic disciplines, weightlifting stood out head and shoulders. Many offenses were committed by Russian women and the highest number of offenses were attributed to Russian athletes (53), followed by Americans (37), and Jamaica (19). Compared to other years, the prevalence among Russian athletics participants was 4.1 times higher during the Olympic Games.

With 205 doping breaches, WADA recorded the most violations in athletics in 2016, followed by bodybuilding (183), cycling (165), weightlifting (116), football (79), powerlifting (70), wrestling (56) ), various swimming disciplines (35) and boxing (35). Italy took 147 violations, followed by France (86), United States (76), Australia (75), Belgium (73) and Russia (69). According to WADA, nearly 230,000 doping tests were conducted worldwide in 117 countries and 112 sports disciplines in 2016. 1,595 positive results followed.

Meldonium

A whole series of Russian top athletes were caught using meldonium. Ice skater Pavel Koelizjnikov (1994-) and tennis player Maria Sjarapova (1987-) were the best known names, but certainly not the first and absolutely not the last.

Meldonium is a medicine to treath angina pectoris and myocardial infarction that was produced in Latvia. It protects the heart against ischemia and increases stamina in healthy individuals, the WADA  placed it on prohibited list in January 2016.

Russian cyclist Eduard Vorganov (1982-), Swedish athlete Abeba Aregawi (1990-), Ethiopian runner Endeshaw Negesse (1988-), Ukrainian biathlete Olga Abramova (1988-) and Russian figure skater Ekaterina Bobrova (1990-) were also caught using meldonium.

Six Georgian weightlifters also appeared to have had cheated...

...just like Joelija Jefimova (1992-), the Russian world champion in the 100 meter breaststroke.

It was then the turn of the Russians Semen Elistratov (1990-) and Alexander Markin (1990-). Shorttracker Elistratov won the gold medal in the 5,000m relay during the Winter Olympics in Sochi and became the same year also European champion. Markin made the quarterfinals with the volleyball team at the 2015 European Championship and won the bronze medal at the European Games in Baku.

Later, Georgian wrestling champion Davit Modzmanashvili (1986-) and Russian short track star Jetakerina Konstantinova (1995-) were added.

One day later it became known that Russian 400m runner Nadezhda Kotlyarova (1989-) had tested positive for meldonium, as well as 800m runner Olga Vovk (1993-) and distance runner Gulshat Gainettinova (1992-) again embarrassed the Russian athletics association with a positive test.

Biathlete Eduard Latipov (1994-) was the umpteenth Russian athlete who was caught using meldonium. The 2015 junior world champion responded positively after a race for the IBU cup.

Russian cyclists Yuri Trofimov (1984-) and Sergey Shilov (1988-) tested also positive for meldonium.

Also Czech wrestler Petr Novak (1988-) was caught using meldonium.

Romanian 400m runner Mirela Lavric (1991-) tested positive for meldonium during the World Indoor Championships in Portland, USA.

Russian swimmers Nikita Lobintsev (1988-), co-record holder of the European record 4 x 200m freestyle and backstroke specialist Grigory Tarasevich (1995-) had also used meldonium.

Dmitry Shlyakhtin (1981-), the boss of the Russian athletics association, did not want to mention names, but said that the new positive cases were separate from the situation in which his association was at the time.

"This situation is not affected by this and it is complex enough, as it is."

Sports Minister Vitali Mutko (1958-) said that the reported cases in Russian athletics were not related to the preparations for the Olympic Games.

"All athletes preparing for the Games have been warned that they are monitored continuously. The meldonium cases are separate from this."

The number of athletes who tested positive for meldonium grew explosively. According to WADA, the counter was at 99 after one week.

Previous research has shown that the drug was detected frequently. With a frequency of 2.2% in the urine samples from controlled athletes, it surpassed number two on the prohibited substances list by more than 100%.
In April 2016, 172 athletes had been caught using meldonium since the ban, however, President Vladimir Putin (1952-) protected his athletes. According to him, Russian officials should have done their homework better, but he also thought it was nonsense to put the drug on the prohibited list

“Meldonium does not influence the result, that is clear to me. It only ensures that the heart muscle remains in good condition under high loads."

On April 13, WADA partially reversed previous decisions and presented some sort of transitional measure. Despite the short half-life, the substance is certainly detectable in the body up to a few months after use. Athletes who were caught before March 1, 2016 and in whom less than 1 µg/ml of meldonium was found in their blood, and who therefore could not reasonably have known that remnants would be found after December 31, 2015, were eligible for their suspension. The final decision was left to the local anti-doping agencies. Exceptions were those who admitted they had used the product in the first two months of 2016. Russian anti-doping agency Rusada lifted the doping suspension of eight of its athletes.

In 2016, more than two hundred athletes tested positive for meldonium.

Bonar

The British anti-doping authority UKAD opened an investigation into British physician Mark Bonar (1978-), who, according to the British newspaper Sunday Times, had helped 150 prominent British athletes on EPO, steroids and growth hormones for six years on payment of thousands of pounds in the private Omniya clinic in Knightsbridge. Bonar, who was registered as a physician but did not have a license to practice medicine, revealed this himself during a conversation with newspaper undercover journalists. The Sunday Times also sent an athlete to Bonar, who filmed with a hidden camera how the doctor explained his method. His clients included Premier League footballers from Arsenal, Chelsea and Leicester City, Tour de France cyclists, tennis players, a boxing champion and a cricketer. In an initial reaction, the clubs denied that they had ties to Bonar. Leicester and Arsenal were also upset with the Sunday Times.

"We are very disappointed that such allegations are made without concrete evidence."

The English FA football association promised to cooperate fully with the UKAD investigation. The FA called for anyone who had more information to report.

UKAD reported that it had investigated the physician in 2014 after a whistleblower allegation. Former amateur cyclist and doping sinner Dan Stevens (1977-) warned the UKAD seven times about the physician's doping practices, but his emails disappeared in the trash. An independent and in-depth investigation into the functioning of UKAD called it difficult to understand that nothing happened to the whistleblower's information, "UKAD had no authority to do so," UKAD said. "Bonar works on its own and was not connected to a specific sport."

The British government ordered an investigation into the working of the anti-doping authority.

"We are shocked and very concerned," said British Sport Secretary John Whittingdale (1959-).

The day he was due to attend a disciplinary court in Manchester, Bonar was absent, but he sent an email stating that he lived at an unknown address abroad and had no intention of returning to the UK. He also asked to have his name removed from the medical register.

Australian football

The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) confirmed the decision of the Arbitration Court for Sport (CAS) to suspend 34 players from the Essendon Football Club for two years for using Thymosin Beta 4.T.

Badminton

Chinese badminton player Yu Xiaohan (1994-) was suspended for seven months after a positive test for sibutramin at the 2015 Universiade in Singapore.

Baseball

Abraham Almonte (1989-) from the Dominican Republic played for the Cleveland Indians. He was suspended for 80 games after a positive test on boldenone.

Miami Marlins' second baseman Dee Gordon (1988-) was suspended for 80 games without wages because he tested positive for testosterone and clostebol. It meant a financial loss of $ 1.65 million to him.

Boxing

Dutch boxer Wouter Djokic (1995-) was caught using stanozolol after the final of the national championship and was therefore suspended, forcing him to forget about his participation in the Olympics.

British professional boxer Tyson Fury (1988-) was suspended for cocaine use.

Romanian-Canadian super-middleweight professional world champion Lucian Bute (1980-) tested positive for ostarine after his fight against Swede Badou Jack (1983-), earning him a six-month suspension and a $ 50,000 fine.

The day before his fight for the world title against Russian heavyweight Alexandre Povetkin (1979-), Haitian Canadian Bermane Stiverne (1978-) tested positive for methylhexaneamine, which cost him a fine of $ 75,000. The fight was allowed to continue, but Stiverne refused to travel to St Petersburg because earlier that year Povertkin had tested positive for melodium after his fight against American Deontay Leshun Wilder (1985-), so the fight was postponed.

Canoe

Rusada suspended Dmitri Ekimov (1985-) and trainer Vadim Karasev (1956-) for four years and Andrei Korabelnikov (1986-) for 3.5 years.

Cricket

Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah (1986-) tested positive for the diuretic chlortalidone after the international match in Abu Dhabi, so he had to go to the side for three months.

Cycling

Lausanne's anti-doping laboratory exposed 30 athletes who used doping practices from the Spanish sports physician Eufemiano Fuentes (1955-). Under the heading Operación Puerto, the Spanish police raided Fuentes and his accomplices in 2006, seizing over 200 blood bags. That blood delivered by athletes belonged to 36 athletes, who would later be injected again through an illegal blood transfusion. Codenames were associated with the blood bags, but the researchers were able to demonstrate the involvement of, among others, Italian Ivan Basso (1977-), German Jan Ullrich (1973-) and Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (1980). Dutchman Thomas Dekker (1984) himself confessed that he was a customer of Fuentes. After a process that took years to complete, Fuentes was found guilty of endangering public health. The prosecutor demanded a year's imprisonment conditionally and a 4 year ban as a medical practitioner. He was acquitted on appeal because the legislation in force at the time did not justify punishment. The various unions managed to prevent the destruction of the blood bags.

American Thomas Luton (1975-), who was an emergency physician by profession, was suspended for four years for the use of EPO, growth hormone and testosterone.

American Tim Root (1967-) was suspended for four years because he refused a doping test after the Anderson Banducci Twilight Criterium in Boise, Idaho.

American Jeff Schwab (1971-) tested positive for anabolic steroids after the Tour of Corsicana Bike Race, for which he was suspended for two years.

Colombian Ana Milena Fagua Raquira (1992-) delivered a positive test on anabolics after the Willow Springs Road Race and was suspended for four years before that.

American Robert Baatz (1968-) tested positive for anabolics after the Tour of Corsicana and had to watch for two years.

American Kimberly Ciolli (1969-) delivered a positive pee on anabolics and propylhexadrine after the St. Francis Tulsa Tough and that offense resulted in her 2 years suspension.

American Mary Verrando-Higgins (1962-) tested positive for methyltestosterone, which meant one year of watching from the side.

Colombian Camilo Ulloa (1988-) was suspended for four years for being tested positive for anabolic steroids and methylphenidat on the Tour of America's Dairyland in Wisconsin. USA.

American Tom Danielson (1978-) was suspended for four years due to the use of anabolic steroids, after which his team Cannondale fired him. In 2012, he had been on the sidelines for six months when he admitted to using doping early in his career.

 

Shawn d'Orelio (1982-) was suspended for four years because he refused a doping test at an out-of-competition check.

American Jessica Denney Phillips (1978-), who also competed in weight lifting, confessed in an out-of-competition test that she had received intravenous banned substances, which meant she had to be put on the side for fourteen months.

American Nick Brandt-Sorenson (1981-) was banned for life after delivering a positive test for the third time, this time on EPO and growth hormones. In addition, he was suspected of also selling the products.

During the Gran Fondo New York, Colombian Yamile Lugo (1970-) tested positive for anabolics and was allowed to watch from the sidelines for four years.

In a test out of competition, American Michael Buckley (1975-) tested positive on no fewer than four products; anabolics, anastrozole, LGD-4033 and ostarine, for which he was suspended for four years.

American track cyclist Robert Lea (1983-) was originally suspended for 15 months because traces of noroxycodone were found during a test, but on appeal the CAS reduced that sentence to six months.

Russian time trial champion Tatyana Antoshina (1982-) tested positive for the growth hormone GHRP-2. Her team Astana fired her immediately and she was suspended for four years.

The Kazakh team Astana with manager Aleksandr Vinokourov (1973-), who was kicked out of the Tour de France in 2007 for blood doping, had two positive tests in the professional team and three in the training team.

When he won the Trofeo Papa 'Cervi di Gattatico as an amateur in 2004, traces of cocaine were found in Italian Mattia Gavazzi (1983-) . In 2010 he again testes positive to that substance. Because he cooperated well with the investigation, his six-year suspension was reduced to 2.5 years by the Italian Olympic Committee. But in April 2016, after winning four stages in the Tour of Lake Ginghai in China, he tested positive again and Gavazzi stopped cycling.

Spanish sports physician Luis Garcia del Moral, suspended for life by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for his contribution to the US Postal doping system, revealed in 2016 to the International Tribunal for Sport (TAS) the existence of a doping program between 1993 and 1998 within the Spanish track team . The physician supplied the team with EPO, growth hormones and corticoids.

The Brazilian formation Funvic Soul Cycles-Carrefour was no longer allowed to participate in competitions for 55 days after three doping cases were registered in twelve months.

Colombian Wilson Rincon (1987-) and Brazilian João Gaspar (1992-) were caught in the Tour of Portugal, Brazilian Kleber Ramos (1985-) tested positive in an out-of-competition check. The three had used Cera.

Former professional cyclist Teo Muis (1966-) was prohibited for life to be involved in any way in competitions or training sessions by the Dutch disciplinary committee of the Institute for Sport Law, because he administered nandolone to his underage son Jesse Muis (2001-), who himself was suspended for two years.

The UCI suspended Italian Samuele Conti (1991-) for three years and seven months after an out-of-competition control found traces of the growth hormone GHRP-2.

British cyclist Simon Yates (1992-) tested positive for terbutaline after the sixth stage of Paris-Nice. Despite an administrative error by the team physician, who had forgotten to report that the rider was taking the drug to treat his asthma, Yates was still suspended for four months.

Italian Davide Appollonio (1989-) was suspended for four years because he was caught using EPO after the GP Kanton Argau, in which he finished third. This also had consequences for his team Androni-Sidermec-Bottecchia. Because teammate Fabio Taborre (1985-) was suspended a few months earlier for the use of FG-4592, the Italian team was withdrawn from competition for a while and was unable to participate in the Giro d'Italia. Subsequently, team manager Gianni Savio (1948-) decided to impose a fine of 100,000 euros on caught riders from his team.

Slovenian Kristjan Fajt (1982-) was caught using EPO in Croatia after the prologue to the Istrian Spring Trophy, which forced him to side for four years.

Italian Francesco Reda (1982-) was suspended for eight years because he tested positive for EPO after his second place in the 2015 Italian Championship. Reda had been suspended for fourteen months in 2013 for refusing a test.

Roberto Heras (1974-) won the lawsuit he had filed against the Spanish cycling federation. The 41-year-old former cyclist received 724,000 Euros as compensation for lost income due to a doping suspension in 2005, which should not have been imposed in retrospect. The reason for this was that the doping test had been careless, because the doping samples were transferred too late and were not kept at the right temperature.

Michael Boogerd (1972-) was suspended for two years with immediate effect because the former Rabobank rider confessed that he had used doping in March 2013.

Football

German defender Marco Russ (1985-) had to be treated for a tumor. Eintracht Frankfurt player's illness came to light after a positive doping test on hCG. The doctors at the club discovered that Russ had a testicular tumor. He underwent surgery that same month and returned to the field on February 28, 2017.

French footballer of Algerian descent Samir Nasri (1987-) from FC Sevilla received a forbidden IV from a female doctor. This was revealed because the doctor posted a photo of the treatment on the Internet. Nasri was suspended for six months, but this was extended to eighteen months when he was caught a second time.

French defender of FC Liverpool Mamadou Sakho (1990-) turned out to have ephidrine. According to the French radio station RMC, it was a fat-burning agent used for weight loss.

Chinese player of Korean descent Jin Jingdao (1992-) from Shandong Luneng was suspended for eight months after testing positive for clenbuterol. Later that suspension was reduced to three months.

Handball

American Joseph Lamour (1992-) was suspended for two years due to amphetamine use.

Rusada also imposed a two-year doping suspension on handball player Galina Nikiforova (1996-).

Ice skating

Dutch marathon skater Thom van Beek (1991-) was caught using EPO during the Groningen and Sweden marathons. The disciplinary committee of the KNSB acquitted him because she could not find convincing evidence and also because the procedure had not been carried out correctly. However, the decision was reversed in 2018 by the Appeals Committee of the KNSB, which excluded Van Beek from matches until 2020.

Karate

American Gino Bough (1981-) had to watch from the sidelines for a year because he had not completed his Where-abouts three times.

Mixed Martial Arts

The USADA gave sentences for the following fighters:

• six months for Americans BJ Penn (1978-) and Tim Means (1984-) and Cuban Yoel Romero (1977-),
• nine months for Brazilian Diego Brandao (1987-). ),
• 15 months for Russian Abdul-Kerim Edilov (1991-),
• 17 months for Brazilian Carlos Diego Ferreira (1985-),
• 18 months for Japanese-Brazilian Lyoto Machida (1978-),
• one year for Americans George Sullivan (1981-) and Jon Jones (1987-),
• two years for Brazilians Ricardo Abreu (1969-) and Gleison Tibau (1983- and American Chad Mendes (1985-).

Brazilian Ricardo Abrey (1969-) was caught again during his suspension in 2017 and then decided to quit MMA.

American heavyweight champion Kevin Randleman (1971-2016), delivered a pee without hormones. So it was clearly a "fake sample". The following year he was hospitalized with severe kidney damage, which he said was due to the high amount of pain killers and antibiotics. His license was then revoked for six months. He died of heart failure in February 2016.

Cuban Yoel Romero (1977-) stated that he had taken a dietary supplement that was contaminated. His team and USADA sent the supplement to a lab for analysis, which confirmed that it contained a banned substance. That substance was not on the label, his manager said. They did not want to reveal the name of the supplement or substance while USADA was investigating the matter. On March 23, it was announced that Romero would appeal his suspension. His team and USADA reached an agreement for a six-month suspension. Romero then took legal action against the dietary supplement manufacturer, earning $ 27 million in damages.

Roller skating

American roller hockey player Joseph Mazzie (1987-) was suspended for four years because of the use of anabolics and growth hormones.

Rugby

American Nia Williams (1983-) tested positive for nandrolone and drostanolone for which she received a four year ban.

Swimming

Doping increasingly got a hold of Russian sports. Swimming followed after athletics and wrestling. The English newspaper The Times claimed that Russian swimming was also troubled by systematic doping for years. The newspaper called Sergej Portugalov (1950-) the evil genius. The medical head of the Russian athletics federation is also said to have encouraged swimming to use prohibited substances. Since Portugalov first offered his services to swimming in 2009, 23 swimmers have been caught and suspended, according to The Times.

The physician was previously banned by the global anti-doping agency WADA as one of the main protagonists in the systematic doping use in Russian athletics.

"The call to ban Russian swimmers from Rio will increase now that it is clear that Portugalov also introduced a doping policy in the national swimming team," the newspaper wrote.

The Russian swimming federation rejected the allegations. In a response, the union also denied that positive doping cases had been hidden.

In the period between 2012 and 2015, the international federation FINA suspended only one Russian swimmer due to a positive doping test, backstroke specialist Vitali Melnikov (1990-).

Vitalina Simonova (1992-), who finished second in the 200-meter breaststroke during the European Championship short course in 2013, should not be allowed to take action until 28 June 2019.

Accumulation of positive doping controls increased the suspicion that doping was systematically administered in the Chinese swimming world.

For example, it was leaked that three-time Olympic champion Sun Yang (1991-) silently served a suspension in 2014 due to a positive test for trimetazidine at the national championships. In 2018, he again made negative headlines when he refused to deliver a urine sample and ordered an official to destroy the already collected blood sample with a hammer. In January 2019, FINA acquitted him because the control conditions had been violated, the names of the inspectors' legitimacy had not been delivered in triplicate.

Li Xuanxu (1994-), bronze medalist in the 400m individual medley at the 2012 London Olympics, and Huang Chaocheng tested positive for the hydrochlorothiazide diuretic, which resulted in a six month ban.

400m individual medley specialist Yang Zhixian (1992-), was suspended for one year together with trainer Fen Zhen for abuse of prohibited products.

In preparation for the Olympics, butterfly specialist Xinyi Chen (1998-) was suspended by the Chinese Swimming Federation for one year due to a positive test for hydrochlorothiazide, but the International Swimming Federation increased this to two years.

Freestyle specialist Qiu Yuhan (1998-) was also on the hydrochlorothiazide and had to watch for nine months.

Taekwondo

American James Howe (1987-) was suspended for six months because of the use of Canabis, three of which were conditional.

Triathlon

American Ashley Paulson (1982-) was caught in an out-of-competition control on the use of ostarine, for which she was suspended for six months.

Australian Lisa Marangon (1980-) had to side for four years because she tested positive for ostarine after the Challenge Melbourne event, in which she finished fifth.

Track and Field

In the Dutch TV program "Other Times Sport" Ria Stalman (1951-) confessed that she owed her Olympic title shot put in 1984 to a daily dose of 5 to 10 mg anabolics. In November 2016, the seventeen-time Dutch champion lost the Dutch record for discus due to her doping confession.

Athletics coach Sjef Swinkels (1943-1990) was one of the first to accuse her of doping. Her former manager Raymond de Vries (1953-) did the same in his 1992 autobiography. According to Belgian journalist Paul Keysers (1958-), Stalman was arrested shortly before the Olympic Games in Los Angeles on the border between America and Mexico with a large stock Winstrol, but was able to convince customs that the pills were for her own use. In the "Newspaper on Sunday", three-time Dutch heptathlon champion Jennifer Smit (1958-) said that Stalman, with whom she shared an apartment, took Winstrol pills containing stanozolol.

At the time, doping use was very easy, according to Stalman, because there was no monitoring during training. She wanted to become an Olympic champion at all costs and therefore felt compelled to do the same as athletes from the GDR and other Eastern Bloc countries. According to her, athletes from the American west coast also used doping.

“If you can't beat them, join them. And that's what I did.”

The Spanish police arrested the renowned athletic trainer Jama Aden (1962-), after many forbidden products were found during a raid in his hotel room. The arrest was the result of an investigation that began in 2013, in which the IAAF worked closely with the Spanish police, Interpol and the Spanish anti-doping agency. The Somali had 20 to 30 athletes under his wings, of which the Ethiopian world champion and world record holder in the 1500m Genzebe Dibaba (1991-) was the most famous. Another athlete from Aden's stable was Ayanleh Souleiman (1992-) from Djibouti, who set the world record of the 1000m indoor a few months earlier.

In 2015, two Aden athletes had already been suspended for doping, the Frenchwoman Laila Traby (1979-) and Hamza Driouch (1994-) from Qatar. Driouch for irregularities in his biological passport during the 2012 London Olympics. Traby for EPO use after the French police found the product in her apartment in Font-Romeu and tested positive.

In January, the IAAF Ethics Committee appointed a lifetime suspension to the former head of the Russian athletics federation Valentin Balakhnichev (1949-), the Russian top coach Aleksey Melnikov (1952-) and Massata Diack (1954-) the son of former IAAF chief Lamine Diack (1933). -).

The former head of the IAAF anti-doping committee, Frenchman Gabriel Dollé (1941-), was suspended for five years. To obfuscate positive doping tests, the four had taken money from the athletes.

Whistleblower Lilia Sjobukhova (1977-), who bought off a positive test as a runner, went free in the case, as she was a "victim" of the corrupt system, according to the report.

The British athletics association then proposed to start with a clean slate and to break through all existing world records. In addition, a caught athlete had to be suspended for at least eight years and all doping controls had to be placed in a public register.

Paula Radcliffe (1973-) opposed that proposal from her athletics association. This punishes innocent athletes in particular, the British runner said, who had the best world time in the marathon since 2003 with a time of 2.15.25.

Russian hammer thrower Kirill Ikonnikov (1984-) was suspended for life by his national athletics association after being caught again using illicit substances. Ikonnikov finished fifth in the 2012 Olympics, three months later, he was caught doping. Ikonnikov had already tested positive earlier in his career.

A re-analysis of the 2009 World Cup samples showed that the biological passports of Russian heptathlon star Tatyana Chernova (1988-) and her compatriots the middle distance runners Yekaterina Sharmina (1986-) and Kristina Ugarova (1987-) showed abnormal values. All three were suspended for blood doping.

The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) suspended four athletes for doping: Irina Maracheva (1984-) (photo1) who won the silver medal in the 800m at the 2012 European Championship. speed walker Anna Lukyanova (1991-) (photo2), 400m runner Elena Nikulina (1995-) and 800m runner Maria Nikolaeva (1994-).

The ROC also suspended seventeen-year-old hurdler Maksim Kosyukov (1998-) for four years after being caught with methenolone during the national championships.

Dutch sprinter Brian Mariano (1985-) tested positive after a meetinf in Mondeville, France, before being suspended for four years. In 2012, he had already been discredited in Curaçao when cocaine was found in his luggage. That earned him a prison sentence of twelve months, six of which were suspended.

The controversial Chinese trainer Ma Junren (1944-), in the photo next to his pupil Wang Junxia (1973-), who confessed in 2016 that her coach systematically doped his athletes. The international athletics federation IAAF started an investigation into this sensational confession. The union first wanted to know whether the letter was authentic. Wang Junxia was part of the famous 'Ma Junren's Army'. The athletics coach managed a particularly successful group of athletes in the 1990s, who dominated the long distances. According to Wang, Junren personally injected his athletes. The coach formally denied that doping use and attributed the top times of his athletes to miracle cocktails that included plant extracts and turtle blood.

Brazilian sprinter Claudia Lemos (1985-) tested positive for oxandrolone.

American pole vaulter Nick Mossberg (1986-) (photo1), American sprinter Cody Bidlow (1992-) (photo2) and American 800m runner Thomas Cawley (1959-) were suspended for four years for possession and use of growth hormones.

Ethiopian long-distance runner Gebo Burka Gameda (1987-) was suspended from prednisone use in the Houston Marathon for eighteen months.

American hurdler Liz Palmer (1960-) tested positive for methandion during the USA Track & Field Masters Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, which meant that she had to side for four years.

American sprinter Gregory Pizza (1958-) was suspended for twenty months for his anabolic use during the 2015 Masters National Track & Field Championships in Jacksonville, Florida.

American hammer thrower Gwen Berry (1989-) had to go to the bank for three months because of the use of the beta-sympathomimetic drug vilanterol.

 

At the Asian Games Mohammed Yunus Lasalleh (1989-) won the 4 x 400m with his Malaysian teammates, but he had to hand in that gold medal after a positive pee. Later, Yunus admitted his doping use, but along with other athletes and trainers, he stated under oath that the chairman of the Malaysian Athletic Union Datuk Karim Ibrahim (1957-) had delivered the pills to him through a Bulgarian physician.

Weightlifting

The International Weightlifters Association has again published its list of suspended athletes:

• Two years for Genesis Lourdes Rodriguez Gomez (1994-) from Venezuela,
• Four years for Malvina Soledad Veron (1989-) from Argentina, Stanislau Chadovic (1996-) from Belarus, Tomasz Bernard Zielinski (1990-) from Poland, Moises Cartagena (1975-) from Puerto Rico, Alina-Alexandra Popvici (2000-) from Romania, Ya-Fang Hsiao (1998-) from Taiwan and Adham Badr Masood (1986-) from Yemen,
• Five years for Ahmed Emad Gouda (1999-) and Alaa Yasser Zaki Othman (1998-) from Egypt,
• Six years for Elmar Aliyev (1987-) from Azerbaijan,
• Eight years for Esmatullah Rustam Khil (1989-) from Afghanistan, Kareem Hashim Abdulkareem (1997-) from Iraq, Sergei Dolgalev (1992-) from Kyrgyzstan and Krzysztof Jakub Szramiak (1984-) from Poland,
• Nine years for Ali Moftah Said Elkekli (1989-) from Brazzaville.

The United States Anti-Doping Commission suspended

Brandon Reyes (1996-), Nicole Moore (1991-), Crystal Riggs (1989-) and Chris Hyun (1990-) (no picture) for six months due to illicit drug use,

Rizelyx Rivera (1987-) received a one year suspension, Ryan Hudson (1978-), Daniel Lehr (1985-) and Landon De Castroverde (1994-) each four years. Hudson was caught again after serving his suspension and was sentenced another four years.

 

Russian anti-doping agency Rusada suspended former European champion U23 Alexei Selyutin (1993-) for four years and Russian champion Yekaterina Vlasova (1995-) for eighteen months due to doping use.

Russian trainers Alexander Venkova and Alexander Vidov were put aside because after the World Cup two women and two men were caught using doping, including world champion and world record holder Aleksey Lovchev (1989-) (photo).

A while later, the results of the re-testing of the 2012 samples in London became known, which led to the number of people caught increasing to 46. Including Kazakh Olympic champions Ilja Iljin (1988-) (photo1) and Maja Manesa (1985-) (photo2). ) and the bronze medalists Grispime Churschudjan (1987-) from Armenia and Iryna Kulescha (1986-) (photo3) from Belarus.

If those tests had happened earlier, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia, China, Moldova, Turkey and Ukraine would not have been allowed to participate in the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro with their weightlifters. Russia, Azerdbeidjan and Bulgaria, however, were not allowed to take office.

Firdaus Abdul Razak (1988-) from Malaysia won the bronze medal in the up to 105 kg category at the SEA Games in Indonesia, but then tested positive for drostanolone, a highly sought-after product among bodybuilders.

Wrestling

American Michael Dunkum (1987-) was suspended for four years after confessing to having used GH, GHRFs, GHS and GHRPs for the past three years.

Dozens of Russian wrestlers were caught doping. That revealed chairman Mikhail Mamiashvili (1963-) of the Russian wrestling association to media of his country. The large-scale use was revealed by an extensive investigation. The 1988 winner of the Olympic gold medal in Seoul called the doping cases "an epidemic bordering on a catastrophe" and expected his team not to be allowed to go to the Rio Games.

He mentioned two names: Yevgeni Saleev (1989-), silver medalist at the 2014 World Cup and Sergey Semenov (1995-), the 2014 junior world champion.